


In The Shadows

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Priest (2011)
Genre: Blood Drinking, Gen, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-03
Updated: 2012-03-03
Packaged: 2017-11-01 01:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/350447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Black Hat is provoked into proving to one man that he’s more than just a myth to scare little children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [writers_choice](http://writers-choice.livejournal.com) challenge #446 - provoke

Black Hat sat in the shadows of the bar, surrounded by the pulse and grind of jaded humanity. That night, as ever, most of the humans seemed subdued, as though the theocratic rule of the Church was finally beginning to stamp out the last of life left beating within the chests of all civilians. No one noticed him sitting on his own in the corner, leaving the vampire free to watch, to wait, to listen, and to pick out his next prey. 

He was hungry, blood-thirst beating in his chest to rise up into his throat so thickly and strongly he felt he could choke. He licked his lips, feeling the brush of his fangs jutting against the soft flesh of his tongue, providing delicious little frissons of pain that came and went and left him, until he repeated the motions again. His hand clenched into a fist upon the table when a civilian wandered past too closely to his table, and passed without looking at him. Black Hat’s interest waned as soon as the human had passed; he was too sickly, too downbeat to sustain him for very long. He knew if he’d fed from the by-passer, he would need to feed again within an hour. 

His yellow eyed gaze scanned the room again, stopping upon a particularly rowdy couple of men propped against the bar. He stared at them, sniffing slightly as he sought out their scents, trying to determine which one to feed from, which one to make his next meal. They both seemed likely candidates, yet one in particular held a strong life-force, slightly drunken laughter bubbling beneath the surface and lending a slight tang to his blood. 

Black Hat nodded to himself, mentally painting a target against the man’s back before he settled back into the shadows to wait. He could not make a move until the man did, could not leave until the target had left the bar. No doubt the man would be staggering and unable to believe what would happen to him in his near future, that his life would end and ebb away, to falter and flow in degrees down the vampire's throat. Black Hat grinned a private grin, knowing that he had the patience to wait. It wasn’t as though he was going anywhere anytime soon, after all. 

His fingers lazily drummed against the flat plains of the tabletop, rhythmic susurrations of movements that went unheard by the people surrounding him; anything louder than muted conversation was drowned out by the drunken louts at the bar, progressively growing louder and rowdier the more the drink flowed and the hours progressed from evening into night.

Black Hat’s interest was piqued when he heard mention of his own name from his target’s throat, words slightly slurred about the edges yet still legible; the intent to provoke was clear, despite the fact the vampire’s intended victim had no clue as to what he was doing, that Black Hat himself was even nearby. Black Hat had made it very clear he wanted to be left alone and had remained mostly motionless, unnoticed on the edge of the scene in the bar. 

“I heard that Black Hat was nothing more than a myth anyways, John,” slurred the man, to his compadre with a knowing eye and even more knowing nod of his head. 

“Yeah, who says?” replied John, the man directly at his elbow. “Seems to me Black Hat has everyone scared. How do you explain those Priests that were found crucified like dogs in the street just two days ago?” 

“The Church is doing it all, obviously. Either the Church or the Priests are,” the drunken man replied. “The Priests are no better than useless and worthless nowadays, anyway. There’s no vampires anymore. The Church said so, remember? Either one of them is pretending there still are some somewhere, to keep us all in line.” 

“You’re wrong and you know it,” John replied. “They’re all wrong. There are still vampires out there and you‘re a fool if you think otherwise. Black Hat is as real as I am, you‘ll see.” 

“Bah,” the drunken prey snorted. “You’re no better than the rest of them, worthless sheep willing to be led by the teeth and the neck, buying into their poppycock shit as usual.” 

“I think you ought to go home,” John said, warily. “You’ll feel better in the morning.” 

“I ain’t going nowhere, yet. Not ready. You know I’m right, anyway, no matter what you say,” the other man slurred. “Black Hat’s nothing but a fairy tale to keep all you sheep in line.” 

“You won’t be saying that when Black Hat catches up with you,” John replied. “What about those other people who’ve gone missing? They didn’t lose themselves. Black Hat killed them all.” 

“That’s a load of horse hockey, too. They probably absconded, to escape from the Church,” the man huffed in return. 

The conversation shifted then, the prey’s companion obviously made uncomfortable by his drinking partner’s views. Black Hat listened with a keen ear, anger brewing beneath the surface at his prey’s worthless taunts and views. He considered taking the man in full view of the bar’s patrons, yet knew it was far more sensible to take him out when no one else was around. He did not want the Priests to come out of the Church imposed dissolution, before Black Hat was ready for them. He needed to amass an army of Familiars in order to take them on, and to carry through with his plan of revenge. He still had yet to meet up with the Priest who’d started it all, who’d left him behind in the Sola Mira Hive. Even now the Priest’s daughter was trapped within the Black Hat’s personal train, caged and helpless, just the way Black Hat liked his hostages, and the way he wanted her, scared, behind bars, wary of him. It made him feel more powerful than he already was, that she was at his complete mercy, unable to do anything but cower before him, and how she had cowered! It made Black Hat chuckle with the remembrance of it.

His thoughts were ripped away by sudden movement at the bar, as his intended prey stood, finally moved on by an increasingly irritated bartender, needing the return of the peace and quietude of before they’d arrived. It seemed that no one liked a rowdy drunk patron, even in these hushed and doomed times. Black Hat stood in one fluid motion, before he plunged out into the night and the fog after his staggering prey.

Black Hat kept his distance at first, too mindful of the intended target’s friend still with him. Soon, that friend peeled away, lost to the fog and the night and swiftly forgotten as Black Hat swooped in. His strong hands grabbed the drunken man from behind and pulled him against a nearby building, trapping him there with his greater weight and height.

The man peered up stupidly at him, blinking in confusion when he saw a pair of bright gold-and-green ringed yellow eyes staring unblinking back at him. Fangs appeared and disappeared in a brief flash of amused grin, before Black Hat spoke.

“Still think I’m a children’s tale, idiot?” Black Hat asked, as he caressed the side of the man’s neck, deceptively soothing with his ministrations.

Nails nicked the skin and Black Hat laughed when the man whimpered and began to struggle weakly to get away. His struggles were not to be taken seriously. It wasn’t as though he genuinely could get away, after all.

“No use struggling, I’m not really here, am I?” Black Hat laughed, the sound an almost touchable thing that slithered over the man’s skin and throat. 

“You’re not real,” the man stuttered, sobriety forced home in the cold light of being trapped by the very being he previously hadn’t believed in. 

“A few more moments and you won’t be real, anymore, either,” Black Hat promised, eyes sizing up the man’s neck appreciatively. “Just goes to show you shouldn't provoke that which you don’t understand.” 

The man had barely time to scream before Black Hat struck, fangs sliding effortlessly into soft flesh before he began to greedily feed, eyes closing in pleasure as he cradled the man against him. It didn’t take long for the man to give up his ghost and die in Black Hat’s arms, yet the vampire fed from him for a long while, before finally pulling away, tongue lapping at the blood that coated his teeth and his lips with a dry, rolling chuckle that seemed to shimmy through the fog. He let the body fall to the floor unheeded, the boneless thump swallowed by the night and the swirling fog around them. The man’s body, he knew, would be found at dawn’s first light, another testament to the fact that Black Hat was real, and not one to be provoked.


End file.
